1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle, and more particularly to a vehicle provided with a fuel injector for supplying fuel to an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional type of such vehicle, a motorcycle provided with a fuel injector for supplying fuel to the engine is well known. See, for example, Patent Documents JP-A-2000-249028, JP-A-2004-182017, and JP-A-2002-037165.
The first two patents disclose a motorcycle having an intake pipe (intake passage) disposed below a body frame and including a bent portion that extends forward and upward from the engine and a fuel injection valve (fuel injector) attached on an upper surface side (body frame side) of the bent portion of the intake pipe that extends forward and upward.
The third patent discloses a motorcycle including an inlet port arranged to continue from an opening end (inlet opening) of a combustion chamber of an engine, an intake pipe arranged to continue from the top end of the inlet port, the intake pipe having a bottom side that extends substantially in the same direction as the inlet port, and an electromagnetic fuel injection valve (fuel injector) mounted on the bottom side of the intake pipe.
A structure of the motorcycle disclosed in the first two patents has the fuel injection valve mounted on the upper surface side (body frame side) of the bent portion of the intake pipe that extends forward and upward. Thus, angling the fuel injection valve forward undesirably causes the topside thereof to touch the intake pipe. Therefore, the structure disclosed in the first two patents makes it difficult for the fuel injection valve to be angled forward from the vehicle body. This results in a problem of less layout flexibility for the fuel injection valve (fuel injector) to the intake pipe (intake passage).
In addition, in the structure of the motorcycle disclosed in the third patent, the bottom side of the intake pipe is formed so as to extend substantially in the same direction as the inlet port, while an injection portion of the fuel injection valve (fuel injector) needs to be mounted so as to cross the direction in which the intake pipe extends. This causes a disadvantage that the injection portion of the fuel injection valve has to be arranged such that it crosses the direction in which the inlet port extends in the intake system. Then, there arises a problem of a tendency for fuel ejected from the injection portion to stick to an inner wall surface of the inlet port in the intake system.